It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for. That’s right, it’s the first Saturday of college football season and, more importantly, the first game of the season for SU as we take on our old friends from south of the border, Penn State (admittedly, not quite the same without Joe Paterno – who my father, and therefore I, could never stand) down in Met Life stadium in NYC at 3:30. Lucky for you, the game is on ABC (sadly, no Keith Jackson) if you live in the parts of the country that matter most (and also the midwest and even North and South Dakota and most of Nebraska, for some reason), and on ESPN2 for the rest of you. So there’s no reason not to watch. At least for a while – then we’ll see how it goes.

I’ll tell you what, though. Obama better not start bombing Syria until after the game, ‘cuz if it gets preempted, I’m gonna be pissed.

We’re in a new league (the ACC – god that sounds weird), have a new head coach (the previous coach took pretty much the whole staff to Buffalo with him; I was considering becoming a Bills fan, but it looks like they’ll suck as much as if not worse than the Jets), new QB (we don’t really know who it’ll even be, but my money is on the transfer from Oklahoma – who must be going through some culture shock right about now, as we haven’t had any tornadoes or blood worms in the water). We lost some of our best players to the NFL, and we really don’t know what to expect this year, but we are cautiously optimistic that we at least won’t suck.

That can all change pretty quickly, though, so I’ll either be back here to gloat after the game, or I’ll go and sulk somewhere for a few days.

Speaking of bombing Syria, I saw that the UN inspectors on the ground there had to hustle the hell out and over to Beirut ahead of schedule before they got a few cruise missiles dropped on them (yes, in order to punish Syria for killing Syrians with gas, we’re going to kill more Syrians with missiles. Missiles, good. Gas, bad). Sounds familiar – I think I’ve already seen this movie.

Somebody get on the horn to Oslo – I think somebody’s in line for another Nobel Peace Prize.

So, I’m trying to avoid this whole Miley Cyrus thing, but the media keeps shoving it in my face (so to speak). I have not looked at the video, and I certainly didn’t watch the VMA awards. Hell, I don’t even know what VMA stands for, other than maybe Valid Memory Address. Though since it was apparently on MTV, I could probably figure it out (I also don’t know what Hannah Montana is or was, but I take it it had something to do with Disney). Frankly, I just can’t stand looking at that poor girl’s shaved head with those two Moses horns or whatever the hell they are.

I also had no idea what “twerking” was, so I had to look that one up. Is this not what used to be called “Dirty Dancing”? I dunno – it all seems really stupid to me, and not worthy of this month-long media scrutiny. I certainly don’t seem to be able to work up any righteous indignation over it. I’m not even outraged with the outrage – just bored by it all. :yawn:

I got an e-mail from Governor Snotball yesterday (it started out with, “Dear Friend,” so I guess we’re buds now) and looking at it quickly, I saw a mention of the upcoming Labor Day weekend, so I figured – what with him being a “Democrat” and all – it would be something about how Labor is what built this country and makes it strong and how we should honor the working people who make this country great. You know, stuff that an actual Democrat would say (or at least used to). Sadly, no. He wanted me to take a NYS Democratic Committee survey about what “direction” the party should be headed (oh, and it asked if I’d be willing to donate to the party or go to party events and stuff like that – and since I’m always up for a party event and willing to throw in a few bucks to buy another keg, I said sure, though as I’m not a registered Democrat, I figured he meant would I work for the Working Families Party).

So, anyway, I took their survey, and told them that I think they should legalize and tax the sale of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes, enact a Medicare-like single payer healthcare system for New York (which they could probably pay for with the pot tax revenue, if they don’t cut taxes for Wall Street billionaires instead), and change funding for education from local property taxes to an additional state-wide income tax (and/or the pot tax – it would be a good way for the kids to help fund their own educations), ‘cuz I don’t think the quality of your kids’ education should be dependent on where the school is located and how rich the people who live in the neighborhood are).

I figure they’ll get right on that.

Oh well, time to go read some more SU football stories while we’re still undefeated.

Have a happy Labor Day weekend

The British have an odd, backward country. This was no more apparent than yesterday, when their Parliament – by a margin of 13 – voted down a non-binding resolution to clear the way for PM David Cameron to throw himself into Barack Obama’s lap (face first, ala Tony Blair and his pal George II) and join in on a little Syrian action. This comes on the heels of a YouGov survey for British tabloid “The Sun” that showed 74% of Britains oppose any UK participation in another American folly in the Middle East. Even more strangely, Cameron then said, “okay, never mind then.” And that was it – no war for you, you poofy English bastards!

Clearly, this could never happen in America. Think about it. The people oppose a war, the government votes with the people (albeit by a much smaller margin), and their leader respects the results of the vote.

These people obviously have no idea how a democracy’s supposed to work.

Here, 50% of people oppose intervention and 80% think Obama ought to at least go through the charade of getting approval from Congress first. So naturally, there’ll be no vote, and if there was one, it would be a rubber stamp, as the hawks (chicken and otherwise) are already in bed with “liberals” (within the government, like Nancy Pelosi, or in the liberal media, like Eugene Robinson, Dexter “this time it’s different” Filkins, and the NY Times).

Because, hey, when our team does it, it’s OK. Having not had a pay raise since, um, I’m not even sure how long – 2010, I think – and just (literally – this week’s check) having my health insurance premium increase by 89%, and with about a 2% pay cut (in the form of the “Deficit Reduction Program” – aka, furlough) about to take effect next pay period, all on the heels of the 3% increase in the payroll tax, and facing the school tax bill next week, all I wanna know is how much this is gonna cost me.

Maybe NPR will do a report on that, now that their week long in-depth series on dumplings has come to an end.

In other news, the DOJ has officially ended the 40-yr War on Drugs. OK, well, not really. They just said the DOJ won’t sue Washington and Colorado for their new laws legalizing pot. But if individual US Attorneys want to prosecute people, they’re still good to go. Still, I suppose it’s progress

Hey, NY, let’s jump on the pot wagon and legalize it already. I mean, I’m glad we got out there on the whole gay marriage thing, but how about passing a law for me one time?

I’ve been sitting around lately, thinking to myself, “something’s missing.” I hadn’t been able to put my finger on what it was until suddenly, it hit me. No wars going on in the Middle East. Well thank goodness that’s all about to change, as it seems quite apparent that we’re on our way to doing “something” in Syria. As a result, oil prices (even though Syria produces pretty much no oil these days) are already rising – along with the profits of Exxon-Mobil, no doubt. I think the only thing holding us back is that nobody’s come up with a catchy slogan (like “Shock and Awe” or something) for our military action. The Republicans are so much better at branding these things.

My guess is we’ll go for a “no fly” zone. That means expending a tremendous amount of ordinance (cruise missiles, bombs) to wipe out the Syrian air force, radar sites, etc., at a cost of a billion dollars a month (according to General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). All while Congress battles over a government shut down and defunding Obamacare.

So this should be great.

This day is not shaping up very well. First off, I’m supposed to be working from home today. But our Internet crapped out at about 5:00 or so yesterday afternoon, and it still isn’t back, as far as I know. They are “working on it,” but have no “ETR”. So I had to get dressed and come in. A bummer, but not the worst thing in the world, right?

Then about half way in, my car radio died. The ABS, TCS, and a couple other idiot lights came on. Then the speedometer stayed stuck at 42, the tach stuck where it was, and the care started shifting very, very roughly.

Eventually, the turn signals stopped working (I have no doubt that the brake light quit, too). As I got closer to work, it became apparent that the car wasn’t gonna keep running, so I pulled into a nearby mall parking lot and stopped – at which point, the car died completely, and that was pretty much that.

So I had it towed to a nearby dealer, who gave me a ride in to the office, and here I sit (brokenhearted). This really blows, and I blame it all on Obama.

Yes, our brush with royalty occurred last night as the President came to town and gave a speech at a high school. We watched a lot of it, but then the satellite receiver overheated and that was that for that. No TV, no Internet. Nothing to do but drink beer (thank goodness I had enough – some might even say, “too much” – of that).

Of course, if you listen to NPR, you’d never know the big ‘O’ was here. Coverage I heard said he gave a speech at UB (one of my alma maters – assuming a place I went to for two years before dropping out can be called an alma mater), then stopped off for lunch in Rochester at a place Chuck Schumer, on his way to Binghamton and Scranton.

They blew us right the fuck off.

OK, so we’re no NYC (or even Buffalo, for that matter), but hell we’ve got more people than Binghamton and Scranton combined. Plus he was here to tout the “Say Yes to Education” program (started here, and now branching out to other cities in NY), where kids graduating from the Syracuse City School District are guaranteed free tuition at one of over 100 private and public colleges.

I guess that’s not important enough to report on, though.

Oh well, I guess I’d better get back to work and see if I get a call about my car. Left my goddamn glasses in it, too.

A thrilling morning for me, as I got to start it off with yet another trip to the dentist. Today, I got to have two cavities filled. You know it’s gonna be a fun visit when he says, “you might not need Novocaine for this.” He knows I’m a coward and I trust his judgement, but still. It wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had, but I survived and now I’m good to go for another six months. Thank goodness.

Big news to announce this morning. I promised I’d keep you all informed when the 2013 NY State Fair butter sculpture was unveiled, and I’m not about to let you down. So, here goes…. The theme is “getting fresh with local dairy,” and it appears to feature an anorexic cow dressed up like the Statue of Liberty with a an ice cream cone torch (or something).

In other big news, we’re preparing for our Presidential visit, as Barack Obama is scheduled to some to town tomorrow. And it sounds like a side trip to see the Harriet Tubman home is quite likely, as the FAA has restricted the airspace for a 30-mile radius around the city of Auburn from 7:30 p.m. Thursday to 10 a.m. Friday. Speculation has it that the President may spend the night in Auburn (where, I don’t know – maybe the Holiday Inn or something).

Hopefully he’ll have time to visit the Auburn prison (the oldest prison still in use – built in 1816 – and the site of the first execution by electric chair in 1890). Whether he stops in or not, he’s bound to see it, as it’s right there in the middle of Auburn, which is kind of weird when you see it for the first time – this stone fortress that looks like every prison you ever saw in a Jimmy Cagney movie with guard towers filled with guys with machine guns.

Attica gets all the publicity, but Auburn is way more badass.

What with the President coming to town this week (and apparently not attending the State Fair – more proof that he’s not a regular American) to give a speech at a local high school and possibly making a stop at the Harriet Tubman home in Auburn, there’s been a bit of a stir amongst the lo-cal news folks. For instance, there was this story about some of the speeches given by US presidents when they were in Syracuse.

Of course, the most famous (or infamous) is no doubt LBJ’s “Gulf of Tonkin” speech at the dedication of the first building of the Newhouse School at SU on August 5, 1964. It was the speech where Johnson laid out his rationale for what would become known as the Vietnam War. As we know now, it was all bullshit and distortions drummed up by the NSA (but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t trust them not to illegally spy on us). Or, as Johnson privately put it in 1965:

“For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there.”

After the Gulf of Tonkin “attacks” roughly 57,800 of the official total of 58,220 American (and Christ only knows how many Vietnamese) deaths occurred.

Teddy Roosevelt also gave his “square deal” speech here in 1903 (at the State Fair on Labor Day, no less – Teddy was both a real American and a manly man, unlike some other presidents I can think of), and his ‘cuz – FDR – kicked off his 1936 campaign here (in front of a crowd of 10,000, including Amelia Earhart).

“Partisans,” he roared, “not willing to face realities, will drag out red herrings as they have always done–to divert attention from the trail of their own weaknesses.” He said visionary presidents had been unfairly accused of undermining the republic since the beginning, and he recalled venomous accusations against Washington, Jackson, Lincoln and FDR’s distant cousin, Teddy Roosevelt.

In a passionate conclusion, the architect of the New Deal not only reached out to conservatives, but maintained that he himself was one:

“Wise and prudent men … intelligent conservatives …. have long known that in a changing world, worthy institutions can be conserved only by adjusting them to the changing time. In the words of the great essayist, ‘The voice of great events is proclaiming to us. Reform if you would preserve.’ I am that kind of conservative because I am that kind of liberal.”

Too bad “that kind of liberal” won’t be coming to town this week.

So, the Washington Post is reporting that “[t]he National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.”

As Gomer Pyle would say, “surprise, surprise, surprise.”

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

Oh those pesky typos.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In one instance, the NSA decided that it need not report the unintended surveillance of Americans.
[…]
In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

So, the NSA doctors its reports to Congress (or just decides it doesn’t need to mention certain things), lies to (or at least withholds information from) the FISC that’s supposed to at least provide some limited oversight, and both accidentally and deliberately breaks the law and spies on US citizens, but it’s Edward Snowden that’s the traitor to his country?

Wasn’t it just a week ago when Obama said

“If you look at the reports … what you’re not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs … what you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused,” Obama said.

Seems like we’re reading about the government “actually” abusing these programs now, mein Herr. Perhaps we can discuss it when Obama comes to town next week.

In other news, let’s hear it for Texas, now using SWAT tactics to crack down on code violations at organic farms.

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized “17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants … native grasses and sunflowers,” after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.

Local authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including “grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises,” Smith’s statement said. She said the police didn’t produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn’t be identified. According to ABC affiliate WFAA, resident Quinn Eaker was the only person arrested — for outstanding traffic violations.

I, for one, applaud this crackdown on tall grass and improperly stacked wood.

I bet the NSA tipped ’em off on those illegal blackberry bushes and okra plants, too.

Rumor has it that President Obama is going on a bus tour and will stop by here next week.

The White House said the president will travel Aug. 22-23 on a two-day bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania. The trip may include visits to Binghamton, Syracuse and Buffalo, as well as Scranton, Pa., but the White House would not confirm reports of the planned stops.

I just hope the bus driver isn’t using a map provided by MSNBC:

I hadn’t realized we were so close to Buffalo and Binghamton (or that we were all in Eastern New York; I gotta figure out why it takes so long to get to the Berkshires). Scranton look a bit farther west than I remember it, too.

Assuming they can figure out where we actually are (they might want to get the NSA on that), it would of course be pretty big news around here. We don’t get a lot of presidents dropping by (except when Bill and Hillary and Chelsea spent a week on vacation up here, and of course when they used to come to the NY State Fair which was part of Hillary’s official duties as Senator, and Bill was of course still into the fried food back then).

Speaking of the state fair, that’s what they really ought to come up here for (and it does start on August 22nd, which is also Governor’s Day, and you just know Obama loves him some Andy Cuomo). I can just picture Michelle sticking her face into a big old plate of pulled pork from Dinosaur Barbecue and chomping down on a sausage sandwich with a side of salt potatoes.

“Eat healthy, kids!”

And, hey, can’t miss the butter sculpture (still a secret as to what it’ll be this year, but you know I’ll clue you in when I find out).

Oh well, another late day for me today. I sure do hate working ’til five.

After an all-too-short weekend, it was back to work this morning. And the morning came really early today, thanks to me staying up to watch Breaking Bad last night (which I’m just gonna have to watch again, ‘cuz I’m pretty sure I fell asleep at various points – namely, just after the start, somewhere around the middle, and then towards the end). So don’t tell me what happened yet. Then I need to watch True Blood and The Newsroom. Busy night ahead, and, worse, I have to work until 5:00 tonight, ‘cuz the guy that usually covers Mondays is on vacation. Bastid. It’s also my on-call week, so I have to screw around with all that crap. Plus, tonight they’re doing an upgrade in another location that will have absolutely no affect on our stuff, but because the brain trust that runs things doesn’t seem to fully grasp how things work, I’m supposed to log in once they’re done just to verify that none of our stuff has been affected. And I won’t be done until, like, after 8:00 (PM)!

Implementing any new changes at night is just plain dumb. It’s much better to do it early in the morning. That way, you have a full complement of end users to make sure everything works OK, plus all the support people on hand should trouble arise. Problem is, I’ve noticed that upper mucky-mucks tend to be late risers, so they like everything done after hours, as opposed to before. It’s not like they’re worth a damn if something actually goes wrong anyway, so who needs ’em around.

I don’t read Politico much, but I liked this opinion piece by Trevor Timm.

Does President Barack Obama think we’re stupid?

That’s the only conclusion possible after watching Friday’s bravura performance in which the president announced a set of proposals meant to bring more transparency to the National Security Agency — and claimed he would have done it anyway, even if Edward Snowden had never decided to leak thousands of highly sensitive documents to The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald.
[…]
…[T]he president declared, “I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot.” When you look at what has changed over the past two months, though, it’s hard not to wonder, “What could be more patriotic than what Snowden did?”
[…]
More than a dozen bills have already been introduced to put a stop to the NSA’s mass phone record collection program and to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reinterpreted the Fourth Amendment in secret, creating a body of privacy law that the public has never read. A half-dozen new privacy lawsuits have been filed against the NSA. The Pentagon is undergoing an unprecedented secrecy audit. U.S. officials have been caught deceiving or lying to Congress.

The list goes on.

These actions have been accompanied by a sea change in public opinion about surveillance. Poll after poll has shown that for the first time ever, Americans think the government has gone too far in violating their privacy, with vast majorities believing the NSA scooping up a record of every phone call made in the United States invades citizens’ privacy.
[…]
The fact is Obama has had years to initiate a debate about surveillance but instead has actively stifled it. Although…he was a huge critic of the PATRIOT Act as a senator, his administration actively opposed privacy and oversight amendments in 2011. Similarly, in December 2012 — just eight months ago — the administration opposed all oversight fixes to the FISA Amendments Act. It passed unchanged with little debate.

Oh well, back to work. Less than an hour to kill now.

As you may (or more likely may not) have heard, yesterday the state of New York released the results of the latest school test scores for grades three through eight. Apparently they’ve raised the standards, and the results are pretty dismal – especially for the urban districts around the state.

Statewide, only 31.1 percent of students in grades three through eight met the state’s tougher new standards in English language arts, down from 55.1 percent the previous year. In math, 31 percent met the standard, compared to 64.8 percent the previous year.
[…]
In Syracuse, only 8.7 percent of third through eighth-graders met the standard in English language arts, down from 24.2 percent the previous year. In math, it was 6.9 percent meeting the standard this year, down from 26.9.

And the Syracuse City School District wasn’t even the worst. The distinction goes to Rochester.

Only 5 percent of Rochester School District elementary and middle schoolers scored proficient on math and reading tests — last in the state save for a handful of charter schools and tiny districts that serve children with severe emotional problems.
[…]
In Buffalo, 11.5 percent scored proficient in reading and 9.6 percent were proficient in math. Syracuse reported 8.7 percent proficient in reading and 6.9 percent in math.

The suburban district scores were considerably better, of course, but still nothing to brag about (statewide, the average was about 31% passing for both math and English).

I’m not a big fan of using standardized tests to measure how much kids actually know, and I’m not sure what they’re actually measuring and what’s meant by being “proficient,” but when less than 10% of the kids pass the test (Syracuse had four school where not a single kid passed the math test), something aint right. I don’t know if the tests are just somehow ridiculously difficult or what.

I’d like to get hold of the 8th grade level tests and see how I do.

Then again, maybe not.

It’s another dental day for me, and one I’m not looking forward to. Apparently he found a couple of things he go and tinker with, and some of it involves a little work up front, where I can either suffer through without Novocaine, or suffer through what feels like a needle being shoved up into my brain. Neither option sounds appealing to me.

But at least it gets me out of work for an hour or so.